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Thursday, September 22, 2011

You know how I know I am the most embarrassing mom on earth? Because I locker crash my boy his first few weeks of middle school, with a bag full of organizing goodies. And then I make him wait with his little brothers around the corner while I put it all together and then do a "reveal" when I am all finished. All while taking photos. To top it off I proceed to blog about it with a post titled, "Pimp My Locker". Wow.

Before you give me a hard time for being a little on the crazy side, let me just say that his eyes when he opened up his locker and started to take it all in, were on the priceless side of things. He tried so hard to hold back his excitement and remain "cool", but I saw through it all. And I am not just telling myself that to make myself feel better. I did wait until school was out after all.

What made me laugh cringe a little when I opened his locker door was the complete chaos that showed he clearly didn't get his mom's organizing gene.

Now I will give him the credit that he didn't have much to work with, but when I picked up his jacket from the floor of his locker, which was under a pair of sneakers, I found books and dirty socks. Yikes!

My plan wasn't rocket science; I just went there equipped with all sorts of locker organizing goodies:

2. This magnet board is the perfect way for him to keep his assignments and reminders in one place and visible when he is packing up his bag at the end of the day. He can jot down things like, "remember field trip permission slip" or "bring home book log" or "date with Abigail". Oh my gosh no, not the last one, not 'til he is 23.

3. Speaking of assignments, I adore these magnetic clips, which are just perfect for him to clip up any homework he needs to remember to bring home, or love notes from his mom...

Not that I would do that....

4. See number 1.

5. This next one seems to be a no brainer, but it's still totally worth mentioning. This locker shelf gave Preston a way to keep his items from being tossed under his dirty sneakers and gives him an extra shelf of storage for his lunch box, books or instrument!

6. So he can keep his all his little things like scratch note paper, pencils and pda easy to grab and store, I added this magnetic caddy to the door.

You may have noticed I also used my Silhouette to cut out a couple vinyl decals to dress the door up a bit, since the decals will peel right off damage free at the end of the school year.

So what did Preston think? I know the suspense was totally just eating at him!

The kid didn't slow down long enough for me to grab a great expression picture, but he was totally diggin' his new digs!

His brothers wanted to check things out too!

I gave Preston a little interview after the "reveal".

Mom:"So what do you think?"

Preston: "Pretty cool!"

Mom:"What's your favorite part?"

Preston: "Probably the pictures and stickers, oh, and the orange organizer thing."

Mom: "What part of the makeover will help you be most organized?

Preston: "The shelf or the calendar."

Mom: "Are you going to keep that note clipped on the door?"

Preston: "Well mom, I really don't want to hurt your feelings and I know you really love me, so I don't need a note to tell me that you love me. Plus, it might be a little embarrassing."

Mom: "Embarrassing? No way, maybe they would be jealous. Should I write them notes too?"

Preston: Rolling his eyes "Mooooom!"

Mom: "You aren't going to forget your instrument any more now are you?"

Preston: "Maybe."

Funny thing is, the next night the instrument came home for one of the first time all year. As I always say, "mother knows best!"

Oh, and on a final note... Bryan and Parker were walking ahead of Preston, Peyton and I, and I couldn't help but snap this picture:

My little man will be walking these halls before I know it, and I will be embarrassing him too! Time just goes too fast....

No post would be complete without a before and after!

OK, so I gotta know, what's the funniest thing you have done to embarrass your kid? Any other mom's out there need me to crash your kid's locker? Maybe leave them a little love note?

I am dying over this post. First of all, he is PRECIOUS. Those photos of the boys are priceless. .. and the fact that you pimped his locker is beyond adorable. I am pretty impressed that he was down with the whole thing. So cute. Maybe you should start pimping lockers all over America!

I love it. So awesome that you got to do that. I use to go in and make sure my kids desks were clean when they were in elementary school. They caught on and started keeping them clean and organized because they didn't know when I would pop in. Hey, it's a mom's job to teach them how to organize. lol I am sure Preston's friends are jealous and want their lockers "pimped" too. You are a cool mom!

My oldest is a freshman in college (comments about how I don't look that old are totally acceptable!) and is taking the basic, required, first-year English comp. class. I'm an English professor. Yes, I did totally write on her paper that she's turning in. With a cute little smiley.

Very cool!I'm slightly jealous that your middle schooler has such a tall locker. Mine gets a tiny square of a locker. What am I to do with that little thing? You did give me a few ideas that might help his tiny cube of space :)

I love organizing lockers! Haha I do it with all my cousins that are still in school! Yea I'm the embarrassing older cousin. But I am super jealous at the size of those lockers! Mine where all a 1/3 that size! Oh this would have been so much fun to do in hs!

Great organizing locker idea! IS your boy in middle school? My son is now in middle school and there is no lockers! But he has to carry everything in backpack but left textbooks at home for most of school year (will return on end of school year). Cant wait until he starts high school in three years then he will have lockers. I love to organize his lockers but I think he will do it himself. LOL!

Omgosh his eyes!!! I am such a lover of blue eye, my hubby has blue eyes!!! Okay now about the locker. Well you are a super-MOM!!! I think you are going to keep that boy in an organized way of thinking!!! Great ideas, Kathysue

Very cute, Jen. My son actually asked me to find him a shelf for his locker (one of his friends had one, YES!), as well as a few magnetic organizers for the door to store pencils and his calculator. Being in 8th grade, he would never allow me to place them in his locker. But he asked for some organizing tools, VICTORY!

A post that I would LOVE to see is TEACHING your middle school child how to organize for studying. Binders, prioritizing, organizing for a test, etc. Not just the study space, but organizing the work and coming up with a game plan. Now there's a challenge for ya! :)

I am absolutely in LOVE with your blog! Everything you do is beautiful and relevant. I love all your tips and I get so inspired by reading your blog. I have already made some changes at home inspired by your blog and suggestions. Thank you so much for working hard to share your talent and beautiful home and family with us! I know keeping a blog is not easy, but know that you're appreciated!

I about died laughing while reading this post. All I could think was, "And my children think I'm an embarrassing mom???" lol I absolutely love what you did with his locker and I briefly considered doing the same thing to my 7th grader's locker. However, I am pretty sure I would NOT get the same reaction you did. lol Nice job!

OH MY GOSH! This is awesome! I was reading this thinking he must have been a tiny bit mortified by the note but then realized I just blogged my boy in his undies today! One of the many perks for Mommyhood!

You are too funny! Never in a million years would it occur to me to organize my kid's locker for him. :) I'll bet it just makes your heart happy to picture him organized at school. Glad he liked it! I wonder if he will like it when he's in high school...

I've read your blog for awhile now and have always appreciated the organizing content but today's interview is what caused me to comment. Having two little boys (ages 1 & 3) I haven't had the 'chance' to embarrass them yet but it made me smile and think of my little guys when I read your oldests responses in his interview. I hope someday to have sweet/embarrassing moments like yours with my little ones. :) thanks for sharing.

I pimped my hubbie's locker. Well actually "decorated". In business school all the students were given lockers and for Valentine's Day I hung balloons, candy and a "secret" admirer card on his locker. I loved "embarrassing" him like that, but I suspect he was delighted.

This totally reminded me of high school. I used to always decorate my locker. So fun! I would even deck it out for Christmas and put up one of those mini-Christmas trees. This makeover was way too fun!!

As a teacher, I recommend getting into that locker again at conferences and in the spring sometime...see what he's using...5th graders of mine wouldn't really get use out of that calendar because they don't spend enough time at their lockers...and the "piles" will just end up on that shelf instead...I wish all my students had lockers that looked like that though! Things might never go missing!

Customizing "their" locker!? I think it’s great! Taking ownership of their surroundings, make them responsible, and proud of being who they are!!!I just submitted to Quirky.com a new design for a locker organizer to optimize locker space and to give the students freedom to organize their locker as they wish while providing them with efficiency in locating items in a locker. Please take the time to VOTE for my “UNIVERSAL LOCKER SHELF” if you think that my design and idea will be of help to anyone and to improve locker space. Don’t forget to leave comments. I would love to get your feedback!

I have a daughter who also started middles school and the whole locker thing and what they have now is so amazing compared to when I was in middles school. I am so impressed that Preston let you do that to his locker. My daughter wasn't too keen on me going to school to outfit her locker and insisted on doing it her self. For girls they have this cute chandelier that is so adorbs and rugs as well. I am dying to do a mid semester evaluation of her locker but it would need to be top secret. Your sons are precious and you have the best blog ever. Beth

She gave him the tools. She did it with love. He will do with it what he will. That is all a parent can do. Give a child the right tools, a lot of love,set an example and hope/pray that it is enough. Her son seemed happy with the gift given out of love.

hi! does anyone have any idea as to where i could purchase one of the orange locker bins or something with the same purpose in australia? i have been looking everywhere for one for school but i cant seem to find one.

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